Category Archives: Comments about Cycling

Heading Down to the NAHBS

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling on by .

We’re heading down to Denver for the Handmade Bike Show this morning. I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve only been to the show once previously, in Austin, and the show is incredible. I’m going to know a ton of people there that I haven’t seen in a long time, so that will most likely be good.

I haven’t been doing all that great, but I realize it is baby steps. I would of thought that this sleep thing at night would have been getting better after a week. I seem to be regressing in that regard. What I’m worried about today is I tend to run out of juice kind of suddenly, and when that occurs, I’m done. Like completely done. It seems to happen mid to late afternoon, so I should try to take that into account down in Denver, but I doubt I will.

My friend Vincent, who I stayed with on the way out and who’s mother’s place I’m staying at in Silverthorne, is coming back late tonight. His father died this past week in Topeka and the funeral was this morning. He’s heading back to Denver right after, so I’ll see him at his house later tonight. He’s going to the show with me on Sunday, which will be super fun. Vincent is an inventor type, who will love the different designs and creations that are common at this show.

My last two days have been routine, but super slow. I can’t believe how much I’m sleeping during the day. Guess I’m trying to make up for lost sleep at night? Whatever the reason, I’m sleeping most of each afternoon away. I would usually feel super guilty about that, but it doesn’t even cross my mind right now. It is so strange how routines can switch so quickly.

My friend, Wayne Stetina, from Shimano, fell last Sunday and shattered his hip. He had to have a complete hip replacement. I texted him a couple days ago and he was already at home, walking. It is amazing. He said that they only cut a 3 inch incision to the front of his leg, cut no leg muscle and replaced his hip. I think it was something like Floyd had done when he broke his. He said today that he was in virtually no pain and super mobile. I told him that I was in a ton of pain, but I’d been riding the erogometer for the past few days.
Anyway, talk about routine changing. One minute your at a bike race and the next minute you have a new hip. Amazing.

I drink a fair amount of hot tea. I like it a lot. I don’t drink coffee before noon on any given day. I haven’t been digging the taste of the tea here in Silverthorne much. I thought it was maybe the pain medication messing with my taste buds. But last night, while I was laying awake, for some inexplicable reason, all of sudden I thought that the tea is tasting so strange because the water isn’t hot enough to steep it properly. I just looked it up and water boils at about 195 degree at 9000 feet, so that is 17 degrees cooler than at sea level. That has to explain it?

Anyway, I’ll post a bunch of pictures of the show later. You can find a bunch here at Velonews.com.
There are a couple of Kent Eriksen’s new dual suspension 650B MTB bike. It is sweet.

I'm having a hard time finding a position that I can stay in over a few minutes while riding inside.

I’m having a hard time finding a position that I can stay in over a few minutes while riding inside.

This is the other position I'm in most of the rest of the day.  Dogs always seem to know when someone doesn't feel good, plus they don't really ever need an excuse to take a nap.

This is the other position I’m in most of the rest of the day. Dogs always seem to know when someone doesn’t feel good, plus they don’t really ever need an excuse to take a nap.

Redlands Revamped

This entry was posted in Comments about Cycling, Racing on by .

I was reading this article about the Redlands Classic and how they got an influx of funds and the race is healthy, which is great. I used to go to Redlands, mainly just to train. This year the race is in early April and I have no chance of being able to compete. But, I haven’t done the race the past couple years anyway. I always thought that they did a pretty good job mixing up the stages, even though the Sunset Loop is a very hard race, it doesn’t necessarily make or break the GC results.

This year they changed the time trial to high altitude, Big Bear, and longer, 12.7km. The time trial used to be less than 5 km and uphill. This year they made the time trial a stage, not a prologue. I think this is big mistake.

The problem with them making the time trial a stage is that they will have to enforce the time limit. The race has such a diverse rider ability and it is so early in the season, that it is really unfair to riders from the Northern climates.

I’m not sure why they wanted to lengthen the time trial either. It might not be that much longer in time, but it is still too long for a weekend stage race. And that is pretty much what Redlands is, a long weekend stage race. I don’t think that a 15 minute time trial is right when there are only 3 stages to make up the time.

Not even mentioning the use of time trial bikes. Personally, I think for all NCR stage races in the United States, there should be no time trial bikes allowed. Our country is just too big to cover in an automobile and flying with two bikes to a race is stupid expensive. If they want to allow clip on bars, that would be alright, but having to spend $350 to bring a time trial bike, just for a 7.5 mile time trial is just dumb.

I know all you time trial fanatics are thinking, “Tilford, you’re full of shit. Just because you don’t time trial well, you don’t want us to use all this expensive equipment we have.” That is partially true, but it still doesn’t matter if it is. The amount of expense that it costs all the riders that are participating in the race isn’t justified by the small amount of seconds exchanged. The results will be pretty much the same, no matter what bikes everyone is riding.

Even the Pro Tour Teams are not allowed to race on time trial equipment sometimes when it is very expensive and cost prohibitive to travel with the extra equipment. The Tour of Qatar comes to mind where the guys did a team time trial on their regular road bikes.

Anyway, it is nice to see that the race is healthy. I’m not big on the changes, but it’s their race and I’m sure they had their reasons for the new venue and longer time trial length. We’ll see if it adds to the competition of the race in a little over a month. Man, it is nearly March.

The is Tyler Hamilton from the 2008 Redlands prologue.  Wow, that was 5 year's ago.

The is Tyler Hamilton from the 2008 Redlands prologue. Wow, that was 5 year’s ago.


The 2013 Tour of Qatar Team Time Trial